Windows 8 -- Just shoot me now.

[skirtingtoday]

Ah the good old days of programming. I learned Fortran and Pascal at school and mad quite a few programmes on the ZX Spectrum. I also learned quite a bit about machine code (ie assembly language) on the ZX.

Recently I converted a QBasic program (for drainage runoff calculation) to run in an Excel spreadsheet.

Nowadays, I just fritter away my time playing games on the PS3 (and PS and PS1... ) though I still make up spreadsheets in Excel whenever I see a useful set of equations that would be really tedious to run through manually...

[Zorba]

Oh, it's just one more architecture. When I think of all the ones I've fiddled with over the years at the assembly level they all start to look pretty similar. Of course then there's the VAX's POLY instruction which set a new standard of what not to do with microcode.

Once upon a time, I hand translated several thousand lines of Intel code to 68K. Whole routines got way shorter - and FAR more elegant.

But even x86 code beats 4004/4040!

Never played with VAXen.

[Jock]

Although we are generally a Mac/iGadget household, we have a PC as well for my wife to access her work server. Her employer (a large public utility) is one of those annoying breed that assumes that the whole world uses Windoze and will only accept input via Internet Explorer. D'oh! Anyhoo, we have this moderate PC which ran XP and I upgraded to W7 when her work did. That was a BIG step for herself. Now W8 arrives and is sooo different from a UI perspective. Microsoft have forgotten the basic fact that we become efficient through familiarity, and when something radically new is introduced, all that skill goes out the window <nopun>. Thus we stick with 2 year old W7.
I was working in a finance environment when Excel went from 5.1 to 6.0. They might just as well have called the E6 a totally different name. Dozens of shortcuts and behaviors changed overnight, and the whole office's efficiency plummeted.

As for W8, I think it is a major change introduced by Microsoft to get into the iPhone/iPad market. They have seen the success of Apple, Samsung, Google, etc, and want a piece of the pie. And if you brass off your user base, what the hey?

Now, where's my old Sinclair ZX80?

[Big and Bashful]

I haven't gone near W8 myself, I was going to install an evaluation version on a spare laptop, but it took one look at the Core duo cpu and turned it's nose up at the machine. I just see the big lego tiles and think it looks like a kiddies toy, not a desktop.
At work we are still on Office 2003, I like 2003, it has toolbars and menus with things in them to click on. Those things do stuff. Click on the little printer thing and printing happens. Life was good then!
At home I had Office 2007, bought really cheap through work. I hated everything about it, there was this ribbon thing which just hid everything I wanted to click on, I couldn't get it to do anything.
Now I am the proud owner of Office 2010, which is slightly more useable. Now 5 clicks and some head scratching and I can do what 2 clicks used to do. I believe W8 has a similar ethos; 7 clicks instead of 1 and hope it doesn't decide to go off and do something else all by itself!

[r.m.anderson]

I haven't gone near W8 myself, I was going to install an evaluation version on a spare laptop, but it took one look at the Core duo cpu and turned it's nose up at the machine. I just see the big lego tiles and think it looks like a kiddies toy, not a desktop.
At work we are still on Office 2003, I like 2003, it has toolbars and menus with things in them to click on. Those things do stuff. Click on the little printer thing and printing happens. Life was good then!
At home I had Office 2007, bought really cheap through work. I hated everything about it, there was this ribbon thing which just hid everything I wanted to click on, I couldn't get it to do anything.
Now I am the proud owner of Office 2010, which is slightly more useable. Now 5 clicks and some head scratching and I can do what 2 clicks used to do. I believe W8 has a similar ethos; 7 clicks instead of 1 and hope it doesn't decide to go off and do something else all by itself!

My take:
Seems that each succeeding generation of Windows requires additional clicks.
As Elvis would say "There is a whole lot of clicking going on" !

I recently bought a laptop with W8 installed - still trying to find a way to dual boot the damn thing to a previous comfortable version of W.
Then I would relegate the W8 to the GREAT VOID never to be clicked on again !
All these goofy apps that I will never use.

The reason I got a new laptop was to have increased video/photo storage (1TB) and a much faster memory (16G).

Can hardly wait for Windows 10 to show up - Yes the perfect 10 where nothing can go wrong - nothing can go wron -
nothing can go wro - nothing can go wr - nothing can go w - nothing can go - nothing can g - nothing can - nothing ca -
nothing c - nothing - nothin - nothi - noth - not - no - n - endless loop to the ever expanding depths of the universe !
"THE GREAT VOID" !

Call me Old Fashion (come to think of it I have one now to keep my physical system in balance - better yet "have two
and call me in the morning") but computers - "Can't live with them and can't live without them" !

If computer code is basically 0's and 1's why do we have 10 digits on a phone ? Why do we have a qwerty keyboard ?
Why do we have those (ATM) fancy buttons to press to access our bank accounts ?
OH YEAH I GET IT - "There is that whole lot clicking going on syndrome" !
It is no wonder things wear out - all that clicking in the background.

Maybe I ought to get off this soapbox - the 1's and 0's are getting a saw and trying cut me down to size !

At least I can wear my Skirts Kilts or Skorts without computer interface or interference - then MAYBE .............

"Skirt-Kilt-ON"
rma

[Zorba]

Yea, no kidding. Click, click, click, click.

I miss CP/M...

[Big and Bashful]

Even pc hardware hates me now! Just received my new GPU. It's one of them over clocked Radion HD 7870 things. (Apparently they are good).
Shut down the beast, removed the old GPU with its arthritic fan. Installed the new wondrous beast, cursed mightiliy because it wants not one power lead, but two to feed its millions of binary spiders, took it back out and stuck Old Faithful back in again.
Tomorrow; a 40 mile round trip to my local computer shop to buy a £2 lead.

Harrumph!

[STEVIE]

Some time past I made a comment here about there being a lot of musicians in the cafe. I wondered then if there was a connection to the skirted interest.
Now, I would pose a similar question to computer experts. Given the posts on this thread, is there a connection between a deep interest in electronics and guys in skirts?
I'm not trying to be sarcastic in any way but I am curious as I have no great knowledge of either music or computers.
Steve.

[crfriend]

I am curious as I have no great knowledge of either music or computers.

Pesonally, I suspect it's more down to the collection of characters here having an above-average level of intellect than the general populace, and with that added benefit comes the ability to maintain an open mind and the confidence to stand out from the herd.

Face it, how many "regular folks" have really questioned the "mandated uniform" in the first place, and even if they did, how many have gone on to actively change things?

As an aside, I'm back to some of my "elder gear" at the moment. Whilst hooking up a proper sound system in my study yesterday I managed to knock over a beer -- right into the keyboard of my laptop. I immediately turned it upside-down in an attempt to keep damage to a minimum, and the thing worked perfectly for the rest of the day; however, when I first tried to compose this note, I noticed that the "o" key was dead and would not be brought back by repeated tapping, poking, and prodding. And that's the extent of the damage. I wonder if I can get it fixed in this throwaway society we live in.

[Big and Bashful]

Carl,
Can the keyboard be removed from the laptop? I heard/read once of keyboards being cleaned by judicious application of a dishwasher, stick the keyboard in on the coolest setting, allow to dry completely and very thoroughly before applying any currents to it, apparently it can work wonders, cleaning out the gunk and as long as it is completely dried before plugging in, the electronicals should still be intact. However whereas I might risk it with a tenners worth of cheap of keyboard, if the laptop still has some intrinsic value I wouldn't blame you for not trying this!

[crfriend]

However whereas I might risk it with a tenners worth of cheap of keyboard, if the laptop still has some intrinsic value I wouldn't blame you for not trying this!

I have had stellar results with that technique for all sorts of things electronic -- save keyboards. I've found that water and the conductive pads they all use now just do not get along.

The stupid thing here is that everything else on the device works fine, and I have no reason to believe that it will deteriorate (quickly at least) any further than one ruddy vowel. (Why'd it have to be a vowel?)

The manufacturer wants a shade over 200 bucks for a keyboard replacement so I've punted a note to a mailing list I'm on to see if anybody has one that's dead from something else and who might part with a keyboard for a nominal sum of cash. We shall see what happens. Probably the very worst would be my buying a small-format USB keyboard and using that or stumping up the cash to get it fixed for real (which would make it much more useful). The device is only two or possibly three years old.

[Sinned]

crfrnd,
Have you tried our good old driend, ebay? I've managed to secure all manner of spares quite cheaply. One of the advantages of a PC as opposed to a la[to is tge usefulness of being ablr to carefully take all the key covers off to clean and dry out after a spill on one. As for any connection vetweeb sjirt wearing and music/computing yhe above average education/intelligence is probably the right answer. Musicians and computer geeks are both considered off the wall and that's certainly true in my case - I've always said that I wasn't normal!!!!

[skirtingtheissue]

The stupid thing here is that everything else on the device works fine, and I have no reason to believe that it will deteriorate (quickly at least) any further than one ruddy vowel. (Why'd it have to be a vowel?)

Just see if you can find Vanna White and offer to buy a vowel...

[Jock]

... driend, .... la[to is tge .... ablr ..... vetweeb sjirt .

That sounds like me after one too many "wee drams"!

Are you sure that you put the keytops back where they belong after cleaning?

[skirtingtoday]

If anyone is struggling with initial setting up of Windows 8, I have found a website where there is a few useful tips which hopefully will help a little bit to get you started.

http://www.davescomputertips.com/2013/0 ... climation/